Writing links of the week: IP battles, Author Rank and the grammar debate

By Gemma Storey

I’m always coming across articles on writing issues which I find interesting, or want to keep for future reference. So I’ve decided to do start posting them here. Articles that have caught my attention this week involve: copyright fights; Google’s Author Rank and the even present grammar debate.

IP battle

Sci-Fi writers are on the war path as UK toy brand, Games Workshop, gets Amazon to remove a novel for using the phrase ‘space marines’. It’s quite a generic term, but I guess the brand may want to expand into first person adventure books at some point, which could be why it took out a trademark in published works.

That said, I totally agree with what the author in question says in her blog post about the issue. It reeks of biting the hand that feeds you. What are we supposed to do, Google every term we use, just in case someone else has used it before?

Writing in the age of Author Rank

This is the kind of thing that makes me want to crawl into a hole and die. But I read a pretty convincing article over on copyblogger this week that explained why it was important to get to grips with Google’s Author Rank.

Yet for all its importance it doesn’t mean I can ‘get it’. Fortunately, I found a few very helpful blog posts on: getting Google to display your profile on search results and setting your Google Author Link up. Time will tell if I’ve managed to get this bit of technical stuff right. (Okay Google also has a good how-to.)

The grammar debate continues…

When I spotted this Smithsonian article over on Twitter, I quietly rejoiced that someone with authority in the subject of grammar was condoning my love of the split infinitives. The sentiment that stuck with me was:

“There’s a simple test that usually exposes a phony rule of grammar: If it makes your English stilted and unnatural, it’s probably a fraud.”

But then, I’m one of those writers that doesn’t want anything getting in the way of the writers voice. The article has caused a bit of a debate though (see The Guardian).